Are We at (Robot) War in Pakistan? (Updated)

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Are We at (Robot) War in Pakistan? (Updated)

Washington and Islamabad are"drawing up a fresh list of terrorist targets for Predator drone strikes" in Pakistan, according to the Wall Street Journal. Militants crossing the border into Afghanistan would still be in the drones' bullseyes, just like before. But Pakistani officials are also "seeking to broaden the scope of the program to target extremists who have carried out attacks against Pakistanis."

If that's the case, isn't America, for all intents and purposes, at war inPakistan? Only in this war, it's our flying robots doing most of the fighting?

Crossing a border to chase militants is one thing – an organic expansion of a pre-existing conflict. This feels like a different matter: a commitment to the Pakistanis to put down their internal rebellion. It's certainly linked to the first conflict (the Pakistani Taliban and the Afghan Taliban have officially teamed up). But it's not the same as the original fight – the one that started in Afghanistan.

Note: I'm not suggesting that we are at war with Pakistan, its people, or its government. But it seems pretty clear that the U.S. is almost(if not already) at war *in *Pakistan, against a whole series of militant networks.

UPDATE: It's important to note that all of these militant groups share training, money, gear, and goons. So it's natural to hop from one to the other – to keep on moving an inch further down this insurgent playing field. But travel one inch after another, and, eventually, you're a mile down the road. Or, as Spencer Ackerman puts it: "Here’s where you feel like the frog who went for a leisurely dip in the warm stockpot bath and suddenly finds himself boiling," he writes. "The American people are being asked to recommit in a major way to the Afghanistan war. It’s untenable to commit to a *Pakistan *war without their consent."

Mehsud is the main suspect behind the 2007 assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. Her widower, Asif Ali Zadari, is now president of Pakistan – and, according to the Journal, a prime supporter of the unmanned strikes.

It's almost Shakespearean. But since we're in the 21st century instead of the 16th, we seal our pact with the king by sending machines, not human assassins, to bring heaven's wrath on the warlord who slew his beloved. And this time, the wrath really does come from heaven. Put yourself in Zardari's shoes. You're being offered the chance to destroy your enemy with a power unknown to history's greatest kings and generals: a bloodless, all-seeing airborne hunting party.Would you refuse?